This map of America’s ‘favorite’ fast food chains is unfathomably bad

Washington State’s first Chick-Fil-A opened in 2015 in Bellevue just outside of Seattle. Since then, the chicken purveyor has opened a few more but they still trail national brands like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Jack In The Box in terms of reach and popularity.

In nearby Oregon, Chick-Fil-A has two locations total. In Montana, there is literally just one outpost.

BI says they “looked at which chains received the most visits on average per location in every state based on the total number of visits to each chain divided by the number of locations in that state.” Somewhere along the way, they must have forgotten to carry a one or something. We’re thinking they might have forgotten to do the second part and divide by the number of locations, because Chick-Fil-A has far fewer restaurants in many states than other major fast food places, not to mention local and regional favorites, which would then make their numbers seem larger based on comparisons.

Say there were 10 Chick-Fil-A’s in Texas, but there were only five In-N-Outs. By Business Insider’s and Foursquare’s formula, if both restaurants each had 50 visits, In-N-Out comes out on top with 10 visits on average to Chick-Fil-A’s five, even though there are more Chick-Fil-A restaurants than In-N-Outs in Texas (in this imaginary scenario).

That’s how Wyoming, which has two Chick-Fil-A locations, ends up with that as their “favorite” fast food joint.

[me]: the map said that Chik-Fil-A was the most popular fast food place in like, 45 states. it's outrageous

About Sean Keeley

A graduate of Syracuse University, Sean Keeley is the creator of the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and author of 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse related things for SB Nation, Curbed, Neighborhoods.com, and many other outlets. He currently lives in Chicago.